Dressed head to toe in black with a silk top hat as she strides across the moors, Suranne Jones cuts yet another formidable figure in her latest TV incarnation.

The real-life Anne Lister, polymath, industrialist, avid explorer and one of the most remarkable women of the 19th century, is the inspiration for major new eight-part BBC drama Gentleman Jack – and she's a world away from the vengeful GP Suranne portrayed in two series of acclaimed thriller Doctor Foster, which kept the nation gripped in 2015 and 2017.

Created by Happy Valley and Last Tango In Halifax's Sally Wainwright, the series tells the story of the fearless and charismatic landowner who was mockingly nicknamed Gentleman Jack by locals in Halifax, West Yorkshire, near to her home, because of her masculine appearance and interest in women.

But Anne was determined to explore her sexuality, come what may, in a society that had no language to define her.

Suranne Jones as Anne Lister. She was a polymath, industrialist, avid explorer and one of the most remarkable women of the 19th century, and is the inspiration for major new eight-part BBC drama Gentleman Jack

So determined was she that she developed an elaborate code for her diaries – which stretch to 24 major volumes and 4 million words – parts of which have been deciphered for the first time for this series.

Her diaries documented her lesbian relationships, her extensive travels and her efforts to transform the fortunes of her faded ancestral estate, Shibden Hall in West Yorkshire. The series follows her life and loves – and her attempts to marry her long-term girlfriend, a plan that was unthinkable in early-19th-century Britain.

We first meet Anne in 1832 when she's 41 and already a force of nature before inheriting Shibden Hall and 400 acres of land from her aunt in 1836.

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This legacy enabled her to become an astute businesswoman in what was very much a man's world.

She took a hands-on approach to the estate, opened a profitable colliery and fought off her male rivals' dirty tricks.

'I'm certainly in love with Anne Lister. I can't say how inspiring she is,' says Suranne, who turns 41 herself this summer.

'I've done a lot of shows, and if you know my work I'm sure you'll know it can be quite dark.

Created by Happy Valley and Last Tango In Halifax's Sally Wainwright, the series tells the story of the fearless and charismatic landowner who was mockingly nicknamed Gentleman Jack (right, played by Jones) by locals in Halifax, West Yorkshire, near to her home, because of her masculine appearance and interest in women. The shows sees her romance with Ann Walker (left, played by Sophie Rundle)

'But playing Anne was uplifting because it's about having the right to be who you are, regardless of your sexuality.'

With two masculine-looking curls rolled tightly either side of her severe centre parting, a grey waistcoat, stiff white collars and grey silk cravat, Suranne looks every inch the part of daunting Anne, even during a break from filming on the set today.

'I talk a lot when I'm nervous and in front of people, but I'm quite a shy person really.

'I think that Anne Lister can teach us all a lesson or two though.

'I want to be a bit more like her, and she kind of teaches you how to do that.

'I remember one actress on set said to me, 'You should be more like Anne Lister because it suits you.' And I think she's right.

Lister's diaries documented her lesbian relationships, her extensive travels and her efforts to transform the fortunes of her faded ancestral estate, Shibden Hall in West Yorkshire. The series follows her life and loves – and her attempts to marry her long-term girlfriend, a plan that was unthinkable in early-19th-century Britain. Pictured: Suranne Jones as Anne Lister

'After eight months spent filming in Yorkshire, I came out the other end feeling braver.

'It's a lesson in courage, in being authentic, having a voice and using it, standing up for yourself.

'With gender, she just challenged that, even back then.

'I've even started a diary as well, which is something I never thought I'd do.' Will we be decoding that in 200 years then?

"No, it's really boring," laughs Suranne, who has a three-year-old son with her husband Laurence Akers, a freelance scriptwriter and former magazine editor.

'But every now and then you hear something juicy and think, 'Oh, I'll write that about this person.'

From an early age, Anne enjoyed love affairs with fellow schoolgirls and then other women, despite the prejudices of the time.

At the start of the series, she's just returned home to Halifax after a well-to-do woman she was courting let her down.

Anne is devastated, but in 1832 she meets wealthy local heiress Ann Walker (played by Sophie Rundle), who she decides to marry.

We see her declaring, 'I was born like this, why should I compromise myself?'

She went on to 'marry' Walker on Easter Sunday 1834 at Holy Trinity Church, York, considered to be the first lesbian marriage in Britain.

In reality, the pair had exchanged rings long before going to church and the ceremony consisted of them taking communion together.

A plaque at the church records that Anne 'celebrated marital commitment, without legal recognition, to Ann Walker'.

'Women often slept in the same bed as friends, and Anne Lister could exploit that,' explains Sally Wainwright, who grew up near Shibden Hall and became fascinated with its most famous daughter more than 20 years ago.

With two masculine-looking curls rolled tightly either side of her severe centre parting, a grey waistcoat, stiff white collars and grey silk cravat, Suranne looks every inch the part of daunting Anne (pictured on set)

'She was actually able to get a lot closer to a woman than she would have been able to if she'd been a man.'

Suranne agrees. 'She loved women, and she loved sex. The pool of women she could choose from was quite small because she had to be very careful.

'The women she had affairs or dalliances with often went on to marry men, perhaps for love or to keep up appearances or for money.

'There's a joyfulness about her love of women, yet there's such sadness when her heart is broken – and it gets broken a lot.

'But each time she puts on a layer of armour, which is what her clothes helped her to do.

'She's very blokeish because, at 41, she's built up this look – it's like her riding look, so it's not like she's dressing like a man particularly, although the top half is very male.

At the start of the series, she's just returned home to Halifax after a well-to-do woman she was courting let her down. Anne (left) is devastated, but in 1832 she meets wealthy local heiress Ann Walker (right, played by Sophie Rundle), who she decides to marry

'It was emotional armour. She's so imposing that I suddenly started to hold myself differently.

'She got married in 1834 and her diaries talk about her wife, so she absolutely knew that's what she wanted,' Suranne continues.

'The word lesbian didn't exist then, there was no community, there was no blueprint for what she was doing, she was just being herself because that's what, she says, nature intended. She could only love the fairer sex.'

As with her other roles Suranne did much research, but she was helped on this job by an 'intimacy co-ordinator' – someone hired to carefully choreograph sex scenes and work with actors and directors on physical touch.

'As well as helping us to sculpt the sex scenes, the positions, she's there to support the actors.

'So we were able to talk about every aspect of Anne's physical relationship with Ann Walker without any embarrassment,' says Suranne. 'It just liberated us all.'

As with her other roles Suranne did much research, but she was helped on this job by an 'intimacy co-ordinator' – someone hired to carefully choreograph sex scenes and work with actors and directors on physical touch

Anne had several quirky mannerisms including suppressing her Yorkshire accent because she was something of a snob and striding purposefully everywhere she went.

'It's quite a physical transformation, as even her walk is fast and strident.

'Sally would say, "Walk quicker", so I was always knackered by take four!

'Then you've got this top hat whooshing around, bringing energy into the scenes, it just gives it a life that's very different to the period.'

The series was filmed in Anne Lister's real ancestral home, Shibden Hall, the first time filming has been allowed there.

'Every day, even when we were working long hours and I still had lines to learn, I just had to take a step back and think, "I can't actually believe they let us into her house to film." It blows your mind,' says Suranne.

The drama only covers two years of Anne Lister's tragically short life – she died of a fever in 1840, aged 49 – so there's scope for a second series, although nothing has been confirmed yet.

'There are some really exciting places to go if we did get another series,' says Sally. 'I don't want to spoil the end of this one, but it's when things really start to take off.'

Gentleman Jack starts later this month on BBC1. The companion book, Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister, by Anne Choma with a foreword by Sally Wainwright, is published by Penguin.

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Doctor Foster’s Suranne Jones says playing a lesbian in drama Gentleman Jack has made her courageous